Citation

Littleton HL, Axsom DK, Yoder M. Sex Roles 2006; 54(7-8): 557-563.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11199-006-9017-z

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Individuals do not often label incidents of forced intercourse as rape. We theorize that one reason this occurs is because incidents do not match individuals’ rape script; instead, these incidents may be more consistent with their normative sexual scripts, such as seduction. We conducted an experimental test of this theory by priming consensual and nonconsensual sexual scripts and examining the impact of the priming on reactions to an ambiguous sexual scenario among a sample of college women (n=210). The priming manipulation affected global ratings of the scenario as well as ratings of the motives of the characters in the scenario. We discuss implications of the results for future research on how individuals conceptualize incidents of forced sex, as well as their implications for rape prevention and outreach.